Most research on the emotional and social aspects of recovery from mastectomy and permanent colostomy surgery has been limited by problems of study design: lack of identification of sub-populations; inability to control for intervening variables; inadequate measurement of variables; bias in sample selection and small sample size. Accordingly, many questions on patterns of patient recovery and the extent of patients' needs during rehabilitation remain unanswered. With support from the National Cancer Institute for a study of the effects of lay groups on recovery and functioning, data have been collected from some 800 mastectomy and permanent colostomy patients 18 to 65 years of age without distant metastases who reside in 17 countries in southeastern New York and who have undergone surgery in some 200 different hospitals. The size and representativeness of the study population was made possible through collaboration with the Bureau of Cancer Control of the New York State Department of Health. Telephone interviews averaging one-hour in length documented patient participation in lay support groups as well as other resources for patient rehabilitation in order to analyze the effect of self-help on recovery. These resources include social support from health care providers; support from family, friends, co-workers and neighbors; information about one's health condition; and coping behaviors. We are requesting one year of additional funding to evaluate the effectiveness of these other patient resources on physical, social, and emotional recovery. In addition, the influence on recovery of four medical factors will be examined: length of hopital stay, extent of surgery, one- versus two-stage surgical procedure, and extent of disease. The research product will describe the resources patients have, analyze how they affect recovery, and present empirically derived models of which resources are most effective with different types of patients in various life circumstances.